24th June 2023 Linlithgow Rose 1 Raith 4
First match for me of season 2023/24, a pre-season friendly between Lowland League Linlithgow and Championship side Raith and only twenty days after my final match of 2022/23 With the match kicking off at 14.30. I caught a train at Haymarket at 13.22 and arrived in Linlithgow around 13.35 and walked to Linlithgows ground at Prestonfield. Walking to the ground normally takes around fifteen minutes but I turned down the wrong side street and had to get back to the main road before arriving at the ground around 14.00 to watch the players warming up from behind the goal after paying my £5 admission charge. As usual at Linlithgow no match programmes were available. I stood behind the goals updating my Footbology app and also posting in Facebook. I then walked to the covered enclosure opposite the main stand where I met met Jim. We took a sea on the wall just outside the covered area to watch the macH. We also had a chat about various football issues including Scotlands victory over a Georgia at a rain soaked Hampden in mid-week and Dunfermline defeat by St Pauli last night. I had a ticket for last nights match but was feeling a bit out of sorts so decided not to go. From what Jim said about the behaviour of the away fans I was glad I stayed at home.
Linlithgow won the East of Scotland Oremier League and will now play in the fifth tier Lowland League this season. They have always been one of the best sides in the East of Scotland junior leagues and after a short spell of underachieving have started to move forward again under manager Gordon Herd. They have however lost forty goal winger Mark Stowe to Championship Arbroath but have signed centre forward Calum Rae from Stirling University as a replacement .
Raith under manager Ian Murray, a former Hibs and Rangers player finished seventh in the Champioship last season but in no danger of relegation. I don’t like Murray despite him like me being a former Boroughmuir School pupil. Any player who has a 7-0 shaved intoto his head before an Edinburgh Derby is just a prat and on of my most satisfying football experiences was Hearts winning 5-1 at Dumbarton when Murray was their manager. I wish I has 5-1 shaved into my hair for that match ! Raith included former Hearts players Jamie Gullan and Scott McGill in their lineup. Gullan was brought up in Buckstone and couple of houses down the road for me. He started off with Hearts and got into the reserve side beret leaving for Hibs. He played a few first team games for Hibs last season before moving to Raith. McGill managed a couple of first time matches for Hearts before signing for Raith at the end of his contract at the end of last season. I just don’t understand why Hearts cannot use young players regularly rather than bring in foreign players from lower leagues.
Josh Mullin in his first start for Raith, after previously having been at Ayr, opened the scoring after three mnutes Dylan Easton broke the left and sent a low ball across goal towards Mullin at the far post. Mullin took a touch and from around ten yards fired a low shot across goal and into the net. Easton added a second goal after around fifteen minutes. He played a one-two on the edge of the penalty area and ran on to shoot low shot past Andy McNeil in the Linlithgow goal. Rose pulled a goal back when they won their first corner of the match. The ball from the left was floated into the penalty area where Sandy Cunningham out-jumped the home defenders to head into the net from about ten yards. Raith however went further had just before halftime. A headed clearance land in front of Mullin and the right edge of the penalty area and he took it first time on the volley into the net to put Rovers 3-1 up.
We decided at halftime to wander down to the other side of the pitch as it looked like most of the action would be Rose attacking. We were wrong as Rose came more into the game but were unable to make lear chances. Jim said to me that I seemed to be favouring Rovers and I agreed as I told him that Gullan had been a neighbour of mine when I stayed in Buckstone. When I said he had played for both Hearts and Hibs. Jim mentioned that his dad was friendly with Jim Souness who had also played for both sides in the 1950s. I knew that Souness was Gullan's grandad and was surprised at the coincidence. Raith scored a fourth in the last ten minutes when Easton was fouled on the left of the penalty box. Gullan took the kick and while his initial shot was saved by Binnie he was able to knock in the rebound as no defenders followed the ball in. Binnnie was not happy with his defenders after the goal and certainly made his feelings know, Raith brought on 16 year old Jake Nicholson as a trialist who became the first player to graduate from their academy to the first team.
After the final whistle I headed back towards the station. As I entered the station the 16.31 train icame in and I caught it back to Haymarket. I was home at 17.05 after going to get a bottle of wine at Tesco. A good day out in the sunshine.
Teams
Linlithgow Rose: Binnie, Skinner, Paterson, MacMullan, Docherty, Heaver, McMasson, Cunningham, Shyngle, Gillespie, Allan.
Subs: Webb, Ogilvie, Sneddon, Brash, Trialist, Trialist.
Raithe Rovers: McNeil, Trialst, Dick, Millen, Gullen, Smith, Mullen, Stanton, Easton, McGill, Masson.
Subs: Matthews, Vaughan
Sunday June 25th 2023
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